Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunshine Day Monday: I was having a very Brady moment on Monday, can ya tell? Since everything is now in bloom, I decided to bust out all my flowery dresses and look the part. dress: vintage, gift; necklace: vintage, my mom's; blouse: gift; tights: Target; shoes: Clarks

Hello thar, all y'all! I hope your week was a wonderment of wonderful. Mine was on this side of groovy with a great interview with the lovely Heidi Easley on Tuesday (pretty sure you can still check it out here). I'm so thrilled that the interview brought some new friends here (welcome, y'all!) and if you entered to win the drawing, the winner-winner-chicken-dinner will be announced this Tuesday (and if you've no earthly idea what Ima talkin' about, then, well, you aren't entered to win nuthin except a big ole "howdy!" from moi).

My weekend was super fun as I took an incredible hat-making class at The Frist Center for Visual Arts here in N'ville! If you follow me on the instagram-crackers, you saw some of the incredible hats and even my (nearly complete) disaster-piece. I'm hoping to have it finished off and a lil DIY-in' blog post for you this week. So, stay tuned!

AND speaking of DIY...did you notice that this isn't just a What the Art Teacher Wore post but also a DIY number? That's right. You see, not too long ago, I was interviewed by the AOE Live dudes: Tim Bogatz and Andrew McCormick (you can catch the interview here, kids) and it came out that the guys were really suffering from some severe fashion deficiencies. And while I promised to jazz up their ensembles by bedazzling their khakis, I opted to take it to the next level by sparkle-izing their ties. Because nothing says Pro-fessional Art Edumacator like studs and rhinestones. AMIRIGHT?!

So, I present to you...DIY: Bedazzled Bros

Here you see Tim proudly wearing his wonky starburst patterned tie (did I mention this was my first Bedazzled Rodeo?! That thing is not for the novice crafter, ahem. Do any colleges offer a bachelors in bedazzling? Cuz I could use a course or three.)

Personally, I think Andrew's tie is a nice subtle kind of glam. Which totes fits his personality, doncha think?

Oh, what's that?! You too wanna make a bedazzled tie? Well, of course you do! It's all the rage in art teacherin' dude land. You'll need to start by heading to your local thrift store and stocking up on ties. Next up: hop in your time-travelin' machine and pop on over to the mid-1990's and scoop yourself up one of these gems. Pardon the pun:

Lookie there! It's TANA FROM NATIONAL TV! (like, who the heck is Tana, y'all?!). I'm so excited that I was able to add some "sparkle and excitement" to Tim and Andrew's otherwise sparkle-less and unexciting wardrobe. P.S. My apologies for the awkward close up of the lady's jeans. Look away, friends! Scroll down, SCROLL DOWN.

Whew, camel toe crisis averted. Back to our regularly scheduled bedazzling. So the tool is really quite easy: insert said bedazzle into the machine and press down. It kinda works like a stapler, y'all.

The sparkly beauty is practically blinding.

And, wait, what's this?! An artist always signs her masterpiece, y'all. It'll be worth the big bucks some day (and by "big bucks" I mean maybe a whole dollar; and by "some day" I mean this summer when they attempt to sell 'em at their yard sales).

By the way, I'm currently selling prints of this glorious image in my etsy shop. The proceeds are going back to the mid-1990's to help them aid in better fashion-choice making. Thanks, guys! Every contribution helps!Now, what was I wearing again...

Ah, Yes, Flowers on Tuesday: Somedays, I walk into Anthro and the clothes are practically free. Like this $19 dress I managed to skip out the door with. However, I've put myself on a Anthro-shopping-hold as I have entirely too much clothing from there. I'm gonna make more of an effort to start stitching all my clothes. Who's with me?! necklace: made by me, DIY here; dress and shoes: Anthro

Wear Your Dress Backwards Wednesday: Sometimes a dress just looks better worn backwards. Like this Anthro number. The ruffly part is meant to be in the back but I think it's way more flattering this way. dress: Anthro; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; tights: TJMaxx; shoes: ew, I hate these things! But my feet are happy so there's that.

Floral Friday: Yeah, so I missed snapping a pic on Thursday, my bad. Believe me when I say it was another floral number, ermkay? blouse, brooch and skirt: vintage; sweater and sandals: Target

Sunday, April 12, 2015

New Skirt Monday: Nuthin starts a week off better than some new duds, says moi. I got this lovely skirt as a birthday prezzie (thanks, Tamara!) and I was so stoked to wear it now that the weather is as sunny and colorful as it is. jean jacket: Buffalo Exchange; embroidered blouse and bracelets: yard sale; skirt: Flying Tomato; tights: Target; shoes: Anthro

Hello, party people! How are all y'all? After having so many short weeks due to snow, holidays and being in NOLA, this week was like a big fat dose of reality. On Tuesday I thought it was Thursday and by Wednesday, I swore it was Friday. Yeah, that's never a good sign. However, this week I'm totally ready. Our school is hosting chalk artist/street painter Lee Jones for a coupla days. I cannot wait to see what she and my super stoked second graders create. And on Tuesday evening I'll be chatting with Tim Bogatz and Andrew McCormick right here...

I'm so excited! Both of those dudes are incredible art teachers as well as AOE presenters and writers. I'm thrilled to have been asked to chat on AOE Live. It'll all go down on Tuesday, April 14th at 8pm Central and, added bonus, it's free. We'll be talking about finding your own art teacherin' style. For more info, just get yerself here.

So that's my upcoming week...here's a lil taste of what went down in the art room this past week!

I needed a quick one week self-portrait lesson for my super star first grade artists. They only needed a week before their clay projects would be back to them so this self-portrait proved to be a great project. I'll give ya the complete lesson here soon on the blog. I've purchased those fancy frame papers to insert these bad boys in. I cannot wait to see the result!

I wish you could see this sweet lil girl to know just how accurate that awesome portrait is!

Flowerin' Tuesday: So everyone around here is putting stuff in the ground. But, having lived here for some time, I know that the weather in Tennessee can be 80 one day in the spring and than BAM! we get a hard freeze. And, being the total lazy slob that I am, I always forget to cover my plants and therefore kill 'em all. So I'll be wearing my flowers for a while...and planting them in about a week or two. How 'bout you? Stick anything in the ground lately? sweater and dress: Anthropologie, purchased at Buffalo Exchange; dotted booties: made by me, DIY here

Third grade land is in the midst of creating these chalked landscapes. What you see here is the final-ish stage as most kids are planning to add their desert animals. I love 'em with or without! We chatted about the artist Sushe Felix (you can see my prezies here and here). I'll give you the full details on how we created these lovelies soon.

Painterly Wednesday: So I found this dress in a resale shop in NOLA and I was all, OMG, that thar is an art teacherin dress if I ever saw one! I wore it complete with my paint brush crown, another NOLA score. I tell ya, the shopping there, to die for! dress: Buffalo Exchange; Necklace: The Paper Source

My fourth grade has been on a color-mixing adventure. I loved all of those One Hundred Days of School/Mix One Hundred Colors images I kept seeing pop up on pinterest. I thought my kids could really use that concept in their landscape paintings. So the rule was: you gotta mix all of your own colors. They absolutely loved it! We chatted about he artist Xavier Castellanos (prezi here) and worked on these for a couple of art classes. Again, lesson to come, kids!

Color Wheel Thursday: Mixing color means knowing your color wheel! Those fourth graders became champs at reading that wheel. Although it still would crack me up (and some of the other kids) when one kid would say, "I don't have any orange!" to which we'd all reply, "That's because you have to MAKE it!" sweater and tights: Target; dress: Modcloth; palette belt (I know, right?!): vintage, etsy; shoes: Fluevog

Oh, lookie! We're getting closer and closer still to completing our Johnson Elementary Has Heart mural! I couldn't be more excited. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted.

Soupy Sneakers Friday: My super sweet aunt and uncle sent me these new kicks in the mail. I couldn't wait to wear 'em to school and chat with the kids about them. But guess what proved to be the focal point of my ensemble? That's right, THE PANTS. They just couldn't see past the thought of me in pants to focus on my shoes. Le sigh. sweater and jeans: old, Target: dotted blouse: thrifted; shoes: Converse

Is it just me or are these first grade fish not the biggest crack up? We used the same technique you might have seen in my kindergarten clay post. I cannot wait to share this simple clay lesson with y'all! Until then.